Private A New Sanctuary

[Nouqai Veil]

Location: ship in hyperspace on the way to Maldra IV

They had just entered hyperspace. It was calm now compared to moments ago when they barely escaped the grasp of the two sith. Despite her wants to return to the lightsworn and Balun to drop her off at Atrisia, there was some relief to be had that she was away from the group. Part of her knew the truth even though she denied it and besides, it was not too bad to be back with her bestfriend. If fact she was thankful that he had gone out of his way to seek her out.

The Lightsworn had given her an amulet for her rehabilitation to purify her darkness. However, from the most recent experience being so near those of the dark, she could feel its potency weakening. It was making her sick being in the presence of the two sith. A clawed hand raised to her neck to fiddle with the trinket in a subconscious habit, she could only hope it would hold up for longer. She didn't know where she could possibly get another one if not from the Lightsworn themselves.

"You didn't steal this ship like the other one did you?" Nouqai spoke, breaking the silence. "Where are we heading anyway?"

Balun Dashiell

 

[Balun Dashiell]

The S-91x Pegasus shot through Hyperspace as the two sat within their cockpits, Balun's positioned ahead of Nouqai Veil 's, the canopy's concealing them from space with transparisteel ceilings, giving them a good view of the star lanes racing by at immeasurable speeds.

"You didn't steal this ship like the other one did you?" Nouqai spoke, breaking the silence. "Where are we heading anyway?"

Her voice sounded through the intercom speaker loud and clear, with such clarity that it sounded as if they were speaking to one another within the same room. "No, this one's mine. I found it, got help fixing it, and registered it in my name. It's got no ties to the Jedi or anyone else, which is why it was the best choice when trying to get you away from the Lightsworn", Balun replied while keeping an eye on the Navi-Terminal showing their route to Maldra IV.

"We're heading to a base that me and the Aquilian Rangers managed to secure. I was going to use it for Clan Terentatek but when that sort of went to chit, I dedicated it to the Tingel Arm Coalition" he explained, looking back over his shoulder towards her. Nouqai's cockpit was slightly higher behind his, so she had a good view of him and his actions.

"Why did you choose to come with me, by the way?" he asked curiously. He had been silently questioning it as they had left the Shipyard Station; "You seemed like you had found your place in the Galaxy when you first told me. I didn't expect that I'd find you on the run from them. What exactly did the Lightsworn do to you?".

 

[Nouqai Veil]

It was the first time Nouqai was hearing about the Tingel Arm Coalition or its Aquilian Rangers. "Are they of Jedi?" She asked, there was a light worry she won't be welcomed there. Balun did not give her the specifics of where it was either than that they were on their way to a base. From where she was, she could not see the navigation computer near Balun, instead the device in her head connected to the ship's systems, browsing through the data and history of coordinates it could access.

The Nest... Maldra IV.

Then he turned around to her to ask a question, why had she went with him instead of the two sith? Balun hadn't heard what the sith lord had threatened her with before he had joined her up the catwalk. " Darth Strosius is not my Master. I do not trust Alisteri like I did with Darth Malum of House Marr ." She explained. "It's not the Sith or the darkside where I've found a place in... It was with my master. Malum saved me. I did not fall to the darkside... willingly. " How she came into apprenticeship with the Sith Lord was a story quite personal and close to her heart that only a few knew about.

Even if they were close friends, there was a lot Balun did not know about her. "There have been a lot of ways that the Lightsworn has helped me. They helped me come to accept that Malum abandoned me on the battlefield - he left my call for help unanswered. It was how I ended in a Jedi prison. " There was still little bad she could see about the radical group of people as if they've done her little wrong.

"The NJO had records of my origins which I've been asking for years. The Lightsworn got it for me. I'm a Sithspawn, a creature engineered by science and dark alchemy designed for whatever twisted reason." The irony of it all was that Falentra created her own creatures using samples of her DNA. However, they were not sentient. "I think thats why I couldn't pass my last trial. My being is literally made from the darkside. The Lightsworn helped me, they believed there was a way to reverse it."

Balun Dashiell

 

[Balun Dashiell]

Balun remained silent for a short time, the weight of Nouqai Veil 's words heavy on his mind. He didn't want to create an argument with her, but there were questions and perspectives that he didn't understand, perhaps because he had not been there and experienced it all firsthand.

The Lightsworn, The New Jedi Order and the Sith Lord who had formed a connection with her.

"The Lightsworn slandered our names publically as traitors to the Jedi; they put an unofficial bounty out on us", Balun reminded her, speaking softly yet stating the truth. It was difficult to see eye to eye with the extremist Jedi group when they were so direct in their hatred towards other Jedi and those who didn't see life as they did.

"As for the New Jedi Order..." he continued speaking, taking a moment to pause and remind her just how he had felt about being with them. "You know I didn't like life with them either, but how would you have reacted knowing that the Sith created you? Maybe they were concerned it would lead you to get into more trouble or do something stupid and end up hurting yourself."

"You always put so much pressure on passing those trials", he stated, turning his attention to the side of the canopy. There was nothing there to make out other than the streamlines of stars that passed them by within their FTL flight.

"The weird thing is, I can't tell if you want to be part of the Jedi or the Sith. Like, forget everyone else for a moment and tell me something. What do you want to do with your life?" he asked her, his attention returning to the navigational terminal at the centre of the controls, although he wasn't paying much attention to the screen so much as their discussion.

"Take me for example. I knew what I wanted, and I did it. I got free of everyone's rules and expectations and made a life for myself. My own making. My way. Sure, it's not what you probably want for yourself, but that's the point. Do you know what you want?".

 

[Nouqai Veil]

Not all of the Lightsworn shared the same views, some more radical than the others. "That is only the work of one... " Falentra continued defending the group. "Why had they helped me then, when they could have easily dispose of another sith if they are as extreme as you say?" Of course, Falentra knew the answer to that, she had ties to the sith and had gathered knowledge through her experiences to use against them. Or if she was merely an experiment, a trial to see if it was possible to reverse whatever her creator sith had done to her.

"I had to pass the trials, it was the only path to knighthood." A path to her freedom as she saw it then. She envied Balun's boldness that left their order and sought out a path of his own. What if they had went together to travel the galaxy then? What if she had never went on the turbulent apprenticeship with Darth Assimilus ? Things would have been very different now, but she would have remained weak, her potential would have been discarded.

Nouqai sighed at his question, it gave her much to ponder about. "My life has always revolved around other people. Without others, then I serve no purpose. I do not know how to live for myself. " There was part of her that wondered if this was part of her design, whoever her makers were, engineered a deposition for her to serve.

"Power. To be something great." Perhaps that was her path to freedom.

 

[Balun Dashiell]

"Why had they helped me then, when they could have easily dispose of another sith if they are as extreme as you say?"

Balun couldn't deny that it was a good question. What did the Lightsworn have to gain by making Nouqai Veil an ally rather than dealing with her as they claimed they sought to do with every Sith or Sithspawn? "You make a good point, and I can't answer that. I've seen very little of them compared to what you have. Did you give them anything? Intel on the Sith or the New Jedi Order that they didn't have already?" he asked curiously, his tone casual. It was a sensitive question and he didn't want to suggest that his best friend might have turned traitor but he could only assume the Lightsworn were looking to get something out of keeping her alive; "What did they stand to gain but showing mercy?" he reiterated, asking so that she might give it some consideration.

As for the subject of the Jedi Trials, Balun sighed, taking a moment before responding to consider his own words a little more carefully. "Look, I get you were excited. I really do. But we're still young. Most Jedi pass their trials in their early twenties, at the very least. You still had plenty of time, and not everyone passes on their first try, from what I heard."

Balun felt like Nouqai had been rushing herself to reach the rank of Jedi Knight, like a youngling wishing they were an adult so they would no longer have to suffer being told what to do all the time.

"My Master...-He lives on Corellia and he hasn't contacted me once since I left him back there. You had Master Agaburry willing to walk beside you as long as it took", or so Balun assumed; "I don't think you failed because of who you are. I met a Jedi on Midvinter who believes there's darkness in all of us, just as there is light. I think you failed because you were trying to rush yourself".